Sec. of State Pate releases statement regarding elections discrepancy in Dallas County

Thursday

Feb 9, 2017 at 11:30 AMFeb 15, 2017 at 4:05 PM

Staff Report

Iowa Secretary of State, Paul Pate, released a statement on Thursday regarding the discrepancy that was found in the General Election results in Dallas County.

“One of the first components of my Election Integrity Act when I announced it last month was establishing post-election audits,” explained Pate in the statement. “I am asking the Iowa Legislature to give me the authority to conduct them. A post-election audit in Dallas County would have caught and fixed this problem. The Election Integrity Act is a comprehensive proposal aimed at modernizing technology, streamlining the process, protecting against human error and the potential for fraud, and instilling confidence in our electoral system. This bill would help ensure things like what happened in Dallas County never happen again.”

A media release from Pate’s office stated that he issued a technical infraction to the Dallas County Auditor’s Office as a result of the errors.

On Feb. 1, Dallas County was notified that the Secretary of State’s office found a discrepancy between the voter participation totals and the totals in the election results. 5,842 absentee ballots were initially not reported with the official election results.

The error was corrected by the Dallas County Auditor’s office and the changes in total results were proportionate to the original results and the results of all races remained the same.